A known technique for treating a brain aneurysm of a patient includes the placement of embolic coils within the aneurysm. To this end, a catheter is introduced into the vessel leading to the aneurysm, and embolic coils are delivered to pack and fill the aneurysm. Ordinarily, a deployment system is used to deliver the coils, via the catheter, to the aneurysm, such as the deployment system disclosed in Hieshima U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,622, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The embolic coils act to reduce the blood flow inside of the aneurysm. Typically the embolic coils provide a mechanical blockage to the blood flow in the aneurysm. In this manner, the stagnation of blood that is obtained prevents the blood flow from rupturing the aneurysm. However, such stagnation forms a thrombus inside the aneurysm, that eventually can get resorbed.
We have discovered a method by which the desirable mechanical blockage of blood flow can be obtained with the addition of platelet adhesion to the embolic coils. This allows tissue to be able to grow, and the thrombus that forms, instead of being resorbed, has the ability to be organized into fibrous scar tissue. Such fibrous scar tissue achieves long term healing of the aneurysm in contrast to the use of embolic coils that can move around with the result that the formed thrombus may be resorbed.
The method that we have discovered is useful for occluding the vasculature of a patient. In addition to embolizing an aneurysm, the method of the present invention may also be used for embolizing a vessel for vessel sacrifice; for reducing or blocking blood flow to an arterial-venous malformation or to a fistula; and for blocking blood flow to tumors.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a novel method for occluding the vasculature of a patient using implanted embolic coils in which there is improved platelet adhesion to the coils.
A further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for treating an aneurysm of a patient using implanted embolic coils in which there is improved platelet adhesion to the coils.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel method for treating an aneurysm of a patient using embolic coils and enabling tissue formation to prevent the coils from moving around within the aneurysm.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel embolic coil that is simple in construction and easy to manufacture.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a novel embolic coil which provides improved platelet adhesion.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.